Due to the well-documented and discussed AVCHD bug present in CS6 and now in CC, I tend to transcode all of my AVCHD footage for editing. If it's a multicam project, I like to use lower-res proxies so playback stays smooth.

The problem I'm running into is that whenever I go to relink my media to the original files for export, Premiere's new Link Media dialogue doesn't allow me to search for file names without including the extension. So instead of being able to look for "Clip_01" regardless of the extension, it's looking for "Clip_01.avi". When the original file is called "Clip_01.MTS", this tends to be a problem.

I can manually go to the "Clip_01.MTS" file and make it link to that, but then the rest of my media just stays linked to the files they were linked to in the first place. This makes it impossible to relink multiple files with different extensions. I literally have to go through each and every clip and manually "Replace Footage" with the original MTS file. Which sucks.

So there you have it. Is there any way to get around this? I know I can transcode to both an intermediate and a proxy with the same extension, but then I would just be eating up harddrive space. Should this be a feature request? I thought Adobe had this whole relinking thing figured out.

I really don't think my CPU is the problem. I do multicam work all the time on shorter MTS clips. Up to four cameras with hardly ever any choppy playback. Typically anything less than 20 minutes or so is fine. It's only the longer clips that give me problems. And the performance didn't improve with CC.

On the other hand, I can take just-as-compressed footage in H.264(mov) and play longer multicam sequences just fine. I only get the playback issues with AVCHD-compressed footage.

Regardless of whether this is actually the AVCHD bug or just some bottleneck in my system (which I firmly believe it is not), I'm still left with the task of re-linking footage with a different file extension. Did Adobe only expect us to relink to footage with the same extension, or am I missing something here?

The new relinking feature is designed to find the original files; it is not really intended to support a proxy workflow. That said, if the program cannot find the original files, it will look for others that match certain properties and ask if the ones you find are what you want to link to.

So for your workflow, try "hiding" the original clips from Premiere by either keeping them on an external drive that you turn off or by moving the folder. If you go the latter route, I believe you will get better results by moving the original folder up rather than down because the code is designed to drill down deeper from the last known location.

I tried your suggestion of moving the original folder up a level to throw off the programmed behavior, and it was able to batch-relink to the alternate files I was pointing it to. So this definitely does provide a workaround for relinking proxy files.

I can also see how the relink feature could be made to work with a proxy workflow by leaving the file extension off of the referenced file name. So, for instance, instead of referencing "Clip001.avi", Premiere would search for "Clip001" with whatever extension it might have.

It seems redundant to have a checkbox for "File Extension" under the search parameters when the referenced file name already includes the extension, and there is no existing option to not include it.

I'm sure there are plenty of other editors out there who would like to use proxy workflows on Premiere, and would welcome this change.

I moved the original folder up a level and then relinked to another folder containing my proxy media. You'll also want to make sure the "File Extension" box is unchecked and your file names are exactly the same.

AVCHD files shooted with Panasonic Lumix GH2 (hacked) worked well since Premiere Cs5. From Cs6 to CC editing creates orrible artifacts above the video, and everyone shooting with Gh2 is obliged in converting files in other formats. It's a big issue, a lot of forum talks about it and a lot of videomakers are asking to Adobe to solve this problem.

I have done some work with proxys in premiere cs5 when avchd would not play. Trick is to create the proxies with mpeg extension rather than avi. (I used media encoder). Then rename the extension of avchd clips to mpg. Premiere doesn'y mind avchd files ending with .mpg

batching changing filename extensions can be done in adobe bridge (select all files/ right click/batch rename/settings there) but I also use a freeware utility called rename. It's excellent.There are others which are equally good.

I have edited on GH2 files and on Canon C100 files. It's the same junk. AVCHD is a pain. I have CC and I put my files in Media Encoder. I transcode the following way.

I batch convert everything to "FORMAT: QUICKTIME"

PRESET: CUSTOM (so choose 720p and then change the VIDEO CODEC: I change to DNxHD (I work on a PC with Windows 7) Before someone chimes in with "get a new computer or buy a MAC" we use both, so that argument doesn't fly. So when I use a PC where ProRes is not available I do this.

OK back to the next step: Under "CODEC SETTINGS" I choose

COLOR SPACE: 709 "NONE"

1080p/original frame rate DNxHD 36 8 bit

Then it batch converts it all and I save it to a separate hard drive in my tower.

I use a hard drive dedicated to just putting my proxy footage in there for editing. When any computer whether it be your Mac Pro or PC tower tries to read the files all from the save drive it'll put more stress in one place making your editing a lagging nightmare. Spread it out and keep organized.

I then import my footage into Bins and name the Bin "blah blah proxy footage" Then I edit and the footage is buttery smooth. I have 16gb of ram and it's more than enough for this type of thing. Ok Here's where my issue comes in.

After I've added my cross dissolves and my color corrections, and I'm done rendering my footage, I've yet to figure out how to automatically relink everything to the original .mts files such that it'll be in the same place for each clip. Meaning if I click "replace with " and select any of the three options, it throws in all the .mts clips but assumes that it the clips all start from their recorded starting point rather than my in and out points. So what I've had to do thus far with CC is go through each clip individually and look with my eye for the place where it lines up. It's a lot of guess work and I use timecode and it takes FOREVER! I didn't have this problem in previous versions. I've attempted to delete the .mov footage to make everything go offline and reconnect to my .mts files and it still puts the wrong in and out points on each clip. Needing to fix this!

I just re-linked footage that was proxyed with a small mp4 file with an mov file.

Just unclick the "match extension". It re-linked the footage. I was even able to flip back and fourth. If all of your footage is proxyed in one folder and source from another, it should work to relink them all.

After you have a no folder with the footage you want replaced, trash the folder with your original footage. After everything is relinked correctly, take the original footage out of the trash and put it back to where it belongs. Voila!

Okay, I have just found a work around that completely solved this issue for me, thank goodness!

I was trying to replace my MOV proxies with the original R3D and MXF files, but I couldn't do more than one file at a time. When I had "relink others automatically" selected, it would only connect the first file, and then the rest would default to my proxies EVEN IF I renamed the proxy folder so Premiere shouldn't have known where they were.

The trick is to move the proxy folder upwards in the file system. This stops premiere from finding the old proxies.

BUT, I was still having issues with my RED footage because it splits up some of the clips into multiple R3D files. So I unchecked "extension" and "name" in the locate window and checked "media start" instead. It takes a little while to connect, but it sure beats doing it manually one by one! I found too that if you change the file structure of the original footage to match the proxies, this also speeds things up.